Business is Business
by Europe28
Summary: "Here's the one I want you to train up" he smiled, standing aside to reveal the very man Sadiq had just sworn a vengeance on, and was currently trying to find. "Ah, you already know each other" Mr Braginski beamed, slapping the new comer on the back. AU
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's note: The initial story line is based of an idea from SlowlyTheWorldTurns, and is dedicated to them~**_

Sadiq looked over his computer with a lazy air of arrogance at the trembling man standing near his office door.

"E-Excuse me sir" the man trembled, half bowing his hair and holding out a folder of documents, "t-the boss told me to give these to you sir to look over."

Getting up from his desk Sadiq saw the small male worker flinch. He peeled the folder from the other's fingers, leafing through its contents. Of course the boss wanted him to look over it. Nobody was as good at his job than Sadiq; he gave a self-satisfied smirk, dismissing the man with a wave of his hand.

Sadiq worked for Tıklayın a rising Turkish computer company that had just bought offices in New York. He was the manager of his particular section in the office; but he knew he was second only to the boss; all the other managers in the building were afraid of him.

Sadiq wasn't sure exactly what it was that made other people so afraid of him, but he wasn't complaining. He wasn't that interested in them anyway and would rather that they stayed away, of course it also gave him more power in the business.

The boss could always rely on him to go away to a conference with a rival business and come back with the results he wanted.

He was a very tall man with tanned skin; he'd been part of the original office in Turkey and had moved out here with the business. He wasn't sure he liked America that much, but wherever the business went, he went.

Going to sit back behind his desk he began to sort through the files, checking references with his own computer to make sure everything was in order.

Suddenly an email popped up on his screen. Sadiq knew it was probably from the boss so was not surprised to find that it was a summon to the boss' office.

He probably wanted Sadiq to go and fire someone, or maybe it was an invite to another business conference. Alfred Jones' company just across the city had been throwing some shots at them lately, perhaps the boss had enough, and wanted Sadiq to go and sort them out.

As he left his office he was aware that everyone outside seemed to freeze, holding their breath and watching him go past.

He pressed the button to the top floor in the elevator, waiting for it to roll its way down to him.

A woman in the elevator jumped out the moment she saw he was getting in, mumbling her apologies as she scuttled past.

Just because he could Sadiq called after her, "Katyusha I want those finished files on my office before the end of the day."

She gave a squeak. Sadiq knew it as fact that she hadn't even started the project yet, and would be working all the way through lunch unable to stop to talk to anyone all day. It was good being a manager.

He groaned as that irritating elevator music began to play. The boss seemed to think it would help moral. Sadiq didn't see how something so annoying could improve anybody's mood.

The boss had almost an entire floor to himself.

When Sadiq arrived Mr Braginski was sitting behind his desk and waiting for him. He pulled a large smile when he saw Sadiq.

"Ah, please take a seat Mr Adnan" he motioned to the chair in front of him.

"Do you need something done sir?" Even Sadiq knew he had to tone himself down when standing before Ivan Braginski. He was not the sort of person you wanted to give the impression to that you were looking down on them.

Sadiq took the seat that had been offered to him, waiting patiently for Mr Braginski to tell him what needed to be done.

"We have a new worker moving to your department, I expect you to help him settle in for a week or so."

Sadiq almost had to cling to the seat to stop himself protesting. But Ivan hadn't missed the movement. Even though he still had a smile on his face, his eyes had darkened, "this won't be a problem will it Mr Adnan?"

"Not at all sir" Sadiq agreed quickly, getting to his feet and waiting for Mr Braginski to dismiss him.

The moment Mr Braginski waved a hand at him, he was out of there. He may suck up to the boss a lot and act like a big shot round the office but this didn't mean he wasn't slightly nervous of the boss.

He supposed the one good thing about Alfred Jones' company was that no one was afraid of him. Sadiq had met the workers in the rival company and they all seemed if anything a little ashamed of their bosses behaviour.

Alfred was very extravagant and often spent lots of money on parties and the sort.

Sadiq had no interest in showing some newbie around, but you couldn't refuse something when the boss asked you to do it personally.

"I need a smoke" Sadiq muttered to himself, pulling a packet out of his pocket and heading for the toilets. It was the only place in the building where you could get away with smoking.

When he got there a few of the other workers were there, also having a quick fag before returning back to work. No one ever seemed too afraid of him in the bathroom because Sadiq was often a lot more relaxed while he was smoking.

"Eduard am I going to get those files by tommorow?" Sadiq asked, half feeling like shaking his head in exasperation. Eduard was one of the other bosses on the floor below Sadiq's, but a CCTV camera had just been installed in that floor's bathroom so Eduard's floor often came up here to smoke now.

Eduard gave a small tremble, but held himself together, "we can't work miracles Sadiq, it will take another three days at the very least..."

He broke off, when the bathroom door was opened, and a very bored looking man wondered in, heading for one of the cubicles.

Sadiq had never seen him around before, and he was sure he would have noticed someone so attractive.

"Is he from your floor?" Sadiq turned to Eduard, who shook his head, "no, he must be from the resources floor below... You're going to ask him out aren't you," Eduard rolled his eyes, earning a glare from Sadiq,

"Of course" Sadiq lowered his voice, "who could refuse someone as successful and sexy as me?"

Sadiq certainly had been out with a lot of people in the company. It wasn't unlike him to lay eyes on someone and almost immediately invite them into his office for 'a quick chat'.

Sadiq waited for the man to finish what he was doing in the toilet.

The man came out to wash his hands, paying no attention to Sadiq or anyone else in the room.

Leaning against a wall Sadiq began his procedure, "I haven't seen you around before?"

Ignored.

A little infuriated but not put off, Sadiq continued, "I'm sure I would have noticed someone as fit as you wondering around."

Ignored.

Sadiq could see Eduard and the other men in the room exchanging amused glances.

He couldn't afford to fail at this.

"You want to go out to dinner sometime?"

The man finished drying his hands and finally turned to Sadiq with a frown. "I wouldn't go out with you even if it cost me my job,"

narrowing his eyes, Sadiq heard one of the others suppress a splutter of laughter, "that it might just do" he threatened,

"Then fire me" the man challenged, shoving past him before quitting the bathroom.

The moment Sadiq had recovered from the shock, he turned round to find all the others gone as well; though he was sure he could hear laughing outside.

Well that guy had really done it, Sadiq was going to hunt him down and make his job and life an absolute misery until he crawled up to Mr Braginski begging to quit; and that was never a pretty sight. The last person who worked in Tıklayın who requested to quit was later sent to hospital with a severe head injury.

The last Sadiq heard, she'd gone to work for Mr Jones' company.

He grinned to himself at the thought of that bored looking bloke crying and begging for someone to release him from Sadiq's torment. But first things first, Sadiq needed to find out which floor he worked for, and who he worked for; some managers were easier to influence than others.

Hurrying back to his office, he sat down at his computer screen bringing up the pictures of all the workers in Tıklayın to scan for the one he was looking for.

While he was scanning faces there was a knock on his office door. He was half tempted to tell whoever it was to go away, but he'd probably better see what they wanted.

"Come in" he called.

The door opened to reveal nobody less than Mr Braginski.

Sadiq jumped to his feet immediately out of courtesy. This was probably him bringing the new worker to Sadiq.

"Here's the one I want you to train up" he smiled, standing aside to reveal the very man Sadiq had just sworn a vengeance on, and was currently trying to find.

He saw a slight register of shock on the other man's face as well, and if he wasn't mistaken a slightly fearful look as well. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad after all...

"Ah, you already know each other" Mr Braginski beamed, slapping the new comer on the back, "well then I'll leave you to it. This is Sadiq Adnan" he introduced Sadiq, who by now was practically beaming, with all sorts of evil thoughts going through his head, "and this is Heracles Karpusi."

With that he backed out of the room and left them together.

_**Author's note: I know this chapter is notably shorter than most of my other story's, but I'm not used to this pairing and it's very hard to write. But I'll update soon and try and make the chapters a little longer.**_


	2. Chapter 2

For a moment the two of them could only stand in silence. One trying to process his luck, the other contemplating what huge act of wrong he had done in life to deserve this.

"So do you have any knowledge of computers already?" Sadiq leaned back lazily in his chair a cocky smile on spreading over his face. Observing this Mr Karpusi it was obvious that he must be new to this. His suit hung off him like it was too big, and on top of that it looked like he'd had to drag himself out of bed.

"I did a course in it" the other muttered, fixing Sadiq with a look of strong dislike.

"Oh a course did you" Sadiq smirked, shaking his head, "well you don't seem quite as qualified as the others here..." Sadiq knew that to be a lie; Gupta in his office had only done a crash course in computing.

He watched the other for a while, then got to his feet, "So what's your first name?"

Mr Karpusi leapt back, almost hissing at him. "I thought I told you earlier that I didn't want to get to know you!"

"Relax, everybody knows each other's first names here; as long as you turn back to formal when Mr Braginski comes down to see what we're all doing." Sadiq mentally hit himself, he shouldn't have said that last bit; If he hadn't warned him about the Mr Braginski bit the new comer would be likely to have been fired on the spot.

The man standing opposite him looked a little surprised at this advice, though he still kept an air of suspicion. "My name's Heracles" he sniffed, "what's yours?"

"Sadiq, but I'm still your boss so Mr Adnan still applies. I'm sorry where are you from?" Something about that accent was bugging him, he just wasn't sure where to place it.

"Greece" Heracles shrugged, "And I can tell your arrogant sort is from Turkey; but let's not continue our past prejudices."

Pulling away from the glare, Sadiq swept Heracles towards the door out into the office where everybody else was working.

"Here" he ordered, aware that it sounded like he was talking to some sort of dog. He indicated the desk next to Gupta's. "If you need anything I'm just in there, Gupta will show you how the program works, I'll give you two days to get used to it."

With that the Turk stormed back to his office, to plot even more ferociously how he could get Heracles fired.

"Is he always like that?" Heracles turned to his neighbour with an enquiring expression. Gupta nodded, then pointed to his screen indicating that Heracles should come and look at what he was doing.

So Sadiq had given him the worker that didn't actually talk to anyone just to make it more difficult for him to learn the program. Heracles narrowed his eyes with contempt, so he wanted to play that game did he?

Well in that case Heracles was determined to learn this program back to front in a day. He sat paying attention to everything Gupta did and indicated. Finding that once you got used to it, you could sort of understand what he meant.

Sadiq must have set this task knowing it would be impossible to complete in the set amount of time; the program was so vast that even with Heracles pressing Gupta to show him more, they still weren't finished by the end of the first day; and both of them were completely exhausted.

"Thanks" Heracles sighed, patting his new college on the back.

How could someone like Sadiq even be allowed to run this office! He was too pressuring. A girl with huge breasts had come up earlier with tears in her eyes, sobbing that it was too much and she couldn't finish it. She didn't even belong to their floor!

Well two could play at Sadiq's stupid childish game. It was a race to see who cracked first, and Heracles was determined not to lose.

The idea of outsmarting that smug face gave him shivers of excitement, but for now he needed to get home and think about it.

The truth was that Heracles had been to University and studied Philosophy and maths; the problem had been in the current situation people with degrees like that just weren't being employed, so he'd had to do another course to get a job. He was by no means a stupid person.

He drove back home and fed his many cats, before pulling something together for himself in the kitchen.

Many plans were forming in his head on what to do with the Turk; though he suppose he was still new to the company so should probably observe for a while how powerful Sadiq was in the company and who he could set against him without getting into trouble himself.

After he'd eaten he half climbed, half fell into bed; falling into a nice comforting sleep with his cats curling all around him.

The next morning he worked hard at learning the program, so by the end of the day he'd actually mastered it. The shocked face on Sadiq was priceless; but of course he couldn't fault Heracles on anything- his first plan had failed.

This meant that Heracles next day could be filled with gaps of work and listening to conversations in the office.

"He set me this whole section to proof read by tommorow," the woman he'd seen two days ago was crying to another who looked like she might be her sister, "and you know how fond Ivan is of him, so we can't do anything about it..."

The other young woman was glaring in the direction of Sadiq's door, "Why don't we try talking to him about it; I mean we're practically sisters to him, he needs to listen to us!"

The other girl hushed her, "Natalia, we need these jobs you know that, we can't upset him."

Heracles had already singled out his first allies.

"Are you okay?" He got to his feet to go and talk to them, making his usually lazy face look concerned.

Both girls jumped.

"Oh fine thank you" the large breasted one smiled, hugging her files close to her chest, "I haven't seen you around before?"

"I'm Heracles, I'm new here; what are your names?"

"I'm Katyusha and this is my sister Natalia; we work on the floor just below yours but I liaison a lot between the two floors," this woman seemed friendly enough; but her sister was frowning.

"Were you listening to our conversation?" She asked suspiciously.

This was one of those times that Heracles knew it was best to tell the truth, "I was, that guy doesn't seem to be very well liked."

"He isn't" Natalia muttered, clenching her fists.

"He works everyone to the bone" Katyusha agreed, "there was this girl called Eliza who used to work for him who tried to quit and he told Ivan about her..."

"Well what was he Ivan meant to do!" Natalia suddenly jumped to defend their boss, "I mean, he's the boss he couldn't just let her go!"

Katyusha ignored her, "usually Ivan wouldn't have found something like that out, but Sadiq told him that she was going to work for Mr Jones' company. He's the rival company the other side of the city. Next we heard Eliza was in hospital."

"She's okay now isn't she?" Heracles was genuinely shocked at this piece of news.

"She was lucky" Natalia muttered, "the traitor is working for that Jones' company now."

Heracles was assessing these two girls, although they both seemed to hate Sadiq; they didn't hold too much against Mr Braginski that they were fondly referring to as Ivan.

"How would you like to get rid of Mr Adnan?"


	3. Chapter 3

Sadiq was, regretfully, rather impressed with Heracles' work over the last few days. Very few could have achieved the difficult tasks he set him, and he'd done them without grumbling; perhaps he was making a mistake trying to get him sacked...

Pulling himself back to his senses Sadiq shook his head. He couldn't walk past Eduard or anyone on his floor now without them sniggering. That Greek bastard had cost him the respect he'd had around the company.

He had another business meeting with The Jones company that afternoon, and had been ordered to bring Heracles with him.

That was the second worst part of Heracles; for some reason Mr Braginski seemed to have taken a liking to him, which meant getting him the sack was both risky and difficult.

Maybe the Greek would slip up at the meeting and stick himself out of favour again. Sadiq couldn't help but hope this would happen. He was also getting an odd feeling in his chest when he thought about Heracles and Mr Braginski being so close.

He knew what the Russian boss liked to do with his 'favourites'.

To put it simply, it was what Natalia had been aiming for from day one.

Checking his watch, he got to his feet; taking with him the prepared briefcase on his desk. Heracles had better be ready to go, or he was going without him.

But the Greek was on his feet the moment Sadiq opened the door; ready with his own files tucked safely under his arm.

"Come on" Sadiq called, spinning on his heel without a second glance at the co-worker he was going with; already making his way towards the door.

He heard Heracles hurrying after him, though he was careful not to fall into step beside him, and remain just a few paces away.

Already Sadiq was annoyed. How could he argue with a company as big as Alfred Jones' with a man he wasn't even on speaking terms with.

There was a company car waiting outside to take them across the city to the other company's office building.

Sadiq scooted into the car, wondering if he should at least force himself to brief Heracles on what this meeting was about.

The Greek got in beside him, folding his arms and turning his head away.

Sadiq couldn't help but feel slightly amused. "That's a little childish don't you think,"

Heracles stiffened, but still refused to look at him, though he did mutter. "Well don't you think it's a little childish being harsh on me because I refused to go out with you."

Sadiq narrowed his eyes, also turning his back. What did he care if Heracles didn't know what he was doing.

They spent the rest of the journey in silence, apart from the occasional growl or hiss in the other's direction.

Sadiq did however drop the hint when they got out of the car, "don't insult anyone, this is a powerful company we're dealing with, even if it is a rival one."

The Jones building was almost as large as theirs, with endless people running in and out.

"No I didn't mean it, Lovino come back!" Two workers rushed past them almost crashing into them as they went. One seemed to be in perusal of the other.

Sadiq gave Heracles a shove towards the entrance of the building, "those two seem to run in and out at least five times a day" he muttered, "just ignore them."

They walked into the building towards the receptionist, who was examining her nails and humming happily to herself.

She had soft short wavy blond hair, and an almost cat like grin.

"Nice to see you Belle, we're here for the meeting" Sadiq smiled, pulling his public face look. That of course the Belgium girl saw right through.

"Third floor" she told him coldly, turning back to what she'd been doing.

Sadiq shrugged, ignoring the glares that fixed themselves on him as he walked towards the elevator. It wasn't suppressed knowledge that he'd given Mr Braginski the tip that Eliza was planning to leave.

Stepping into the elevator, he let out a deep relieved breath.

Heracles glanced at the taller man out of the corner of his eye. Did this actually bother Sadiq?

He didn't have too long to contemplate it because the elevator door was already swinging open, to reveal a very impatient looking blond man, with very thick eyebrows.

"You're six minuets late!" He snapped, when Sadiq entered, "we'd better be compensated for this!"

"Now, now cher, come and sit down so we can get this silly meeting over with," another voice called from inside the office.

The man in front of them sounded delightfully British.

"Shut the fuck up you bastard!" He shouted over his shoulder at the conference room, glaring at Sadiq and Heracles before leading the way to the meeting.

"Always a pleasure Kirkland" Sadiq muttered, ready to duck when Arthur spun round to punch him, "I swear your temper just keeps getting worse,"

"You try doing a job when your partnered with a lazy FROG!" He shouted the last bit at another man leaning back in his chair at the table lazily, waiting for them.

"I thought we talked about you being rude to people outside the company" said Frog sighed, motioning for Sadiq and Heracles to sit down.

"Mr Jones is busy and sends his regrets" Francis apologised, when they were all sitting comfortably, "I see Mr Braginski is too?"

"That's right" Sadiq nodded, "this is my new co-worker Heracles Karpusi. Heracles this is France Bonnefry and Arthur Kirkland."

"Delighted to meet you" Francis smiled, holding out his hand to shake, with a light smile.

"Don't bother" Sadiq warned, "I already tried."

Francis winked at Heracles, before sitting back down again, ignoring a possibly jealous glare coming from the Brit.

The meeting ran quite smoothly, mostly with Arthur and Sadiq yelling at the tops of there voices and cursing each other's grandmothers. All in all things went well. Nothing was thrown, and nobody had to be rushed off to the hospital.

A while back Arthur had turned on his own co-worker and punched him through the glass table. Then burst into tears because Francis started shouting at him.

The way Sadiq saw it, they were the best to be in a conference with because you could always laugh about them later; they were like a comedy duo.

Matthew Williams, Mr Jones' personal secretary came to break up the meeting because Francis and Arthur were needed to fetch their boss' take away from down stairs.

"That was a joke" Heracles muttered after they'd left.

Sadiq just shrugged, "we got what we wanted, they got what they wanted. Now we've shouted at each other, we should be able to ignore each other for the next few weeks."


	4. Chapter 4

Mr Braginski seemed happy enough with the result of the meeting, so to Sadiq that meant nothing to worry about. But he was also no closer to having Heracles fired.

He contemplated this, on the silent elevator ride down to the office with Heracles. Did he really want to have him fired. He was actually quite useful to have around, and he could always fire a few people on Eduard's floor to remind him who was in charge.

Heracles stepped out of the elevator first, making his way over to Katyusha who was standing by the other elevator. She jumped when she saw him, but handed Heracles a file full of paper.

That was odd... He hadn't asked for anything today...

Heracles returned to his desk with the files, leafing through them. Couldn't she have looked through them herself?

Though he supposed he should be doing something towards this project. There had to be something bad he could find that Sadiq had done, and according to Katyusha sexually harassing members of the workforce didn't count.

It was going to take him all day to look through this stuff, and he didn't dare take it home in case his cats mistook it for kitty litter.

Gupta peered over his shoulder, blinking at the contents.

"Do you think you'd have any better luck finding anything?" Heracles asked, holding the file up for Gupta to see.

The silent man took hold of it, looking through the contents, before looking quizzically at Heracles.

"We're trying to find something on Mr Adnan" Heracles explained, "to knock him down from his high perch."

Gupta nodded, continuing to look through the pages of documents that Katyusha and Natalia must have put together.

When Sadiq came out of his office Gupta sat on it to hide it from view.

Everyone seemed in the office seemed pretty fed up with Sadiq's totalitarian rule. Heracles was only slightly confused over why nobody had tried to do this before.

He asked Katyusha about it when he next saw her with another stack of documents for him to look at.

"We're all a bit scared of him" she admitted, "There was the guy who runs the floor below Eduard's, he tried once, but I think Sadiq set Ivan on him. Just don't find anybody you don't want to lose in this place," she shivered, "Even though me and my sister have known Ivan from childhood, I still don't like what he does to this place."

That was when the idea struck him, "maybe this guy still has something against Sadiq... I mean Mr Adnan," Heracles mentally slapped himself, now he felt like an idiot.

Katyusha gave him a muddled look but she didn't say anything; he was sure if it had been Natalia she definitely would have picked up on it.

"Who is this person?" He checked, as he and Katyusha went down in the elevator.

"Feliks Łukasiewicz" She replied, "he was in a relationship with Mr Laurinaitis, Ivan had him moved to work on Eduard's floor; but I have a feeling he was originally threatened with a lot worse."

All these names were beginning to spin in Heracles' head; so many people that Sadiq had turned over to Ivan, or silenced to protect himself.

He went with Katyusha down in the elevator. This could end this long search if they could find just one thing to pin on Sadiq, that wasn't touching someone up- which apparently Ivan encouraged, because it meant people got to know each other better.

It seemed the further down in floors you went, the shittier they became. Sadiq's floor was full of new computers, and he had his own office. Eduard had his own office but it was a lot smaller and the technology wasn't as new.

Feliks' floor was a mess.

Feliks' desk was in the middle of one very messy room that seemed to be relying on paper work more than the three slow looking computers they had in a corner.

However, being lower down also seemed to mean you weren't expected to do as much. It was always busy on Sadiq's floor. Everyone down here was either lazily checking a form or not doing anything.

"Like can I help?" A young blond man, that Heracles supposed must be Feliks bounded up to them. He eyed Heracles up suspiciously; "your from his floor, have you come to spy on us?"

"No, no" Katyusha leapt to Heracles' defence, "he's here trying to continue what you started; we're wondering if you can help us, you know, if you found anything out." She bit her lip nervously.

For a moment it still looked like Feliks didn't trust them, but then he shrugged, motioning them towards his desk. "Here are the files you wanted," Feliks made a small motion to the left, positioning himself so Heracles and Katyusha could look over his shoulder. Two security cameras glared back at them. He handed them a single sheet of paper, smiling, "enjoy reading."

He indicated they should go.

Heracles and Katyusha returned to the elevator, making sure the doors were shut before looking over what they'd been given.

For a moment there was silence as they read, then a smile broke over Heracles' face, and Katyusha began to look hopeful. This would do it, there could be nothing more perfect.

"So, what do we do now?" Heracles glanced over at her, speaking quickly so they could make a decision before they reached his floor. "Do we let him know we know, or do we just deliver it to Mr Braginski?"

"Show it to him," Katyusha's voice was full of guilty excitement, "it will be funny to see him sweat. You need to tell me and Natalia about it afterwards,"

"Aren't you coming too?" Heracles paused, doubting he could face an angry Sadiq alone; though it would be a story to tell afterwards...

"Sadiq's too scary" she murmured, "I'll leave it to you."

_**Author's note: Sorry it's short, I'm going to try and finish it in the next few chapters, so it will be finished before I go to France. It wasn't meant to be too long. Hopefully I can sum it up in just less that 10,000 words.**_


	5. Chapter 5

Heracles shifted from foot to foot, before knocking and pushing open Sadiq's office door. It was funny, but he'd never envisioned this moment of triumph quite like this...

Sadiq glanced up when he entered, but returned to typing quickly at his computer; Heracles thought he caught the faint sign of a blush on the Turk's cheeks. He dismissed this due to his nerves.

He suddenly became aware that he'd just walked into Sadiq's office and hadn't said anything.

He was just struggling for something to say, when Sadiq spoke.

"I think we got off to the wrong foot..." The words sounded so forced it was almost painful, and Sadiq was unable to make eye contact with him, "look I'll stop this mess okay... You're actually quite a good worker to have around..."

Heracles felt a nasty flip in his chest.

Did Sadiq know what he'd found? Was he just trying to talk him out of it...

"It's not just me... You abuse people all over the office," Heracles hated how unconfident he suddenly sounded, he needed to make this sound forceful, make Sadiq as scared as he'd made lots of others.

But was there something in the Turk the others just didn't see...

Now Heracles was looking at the slightly older man, he could see dark rings under his eyes. His hair was tangled from where it looked like he'd run his hands through it endlessly.

What if Sadiq was just behaving like he did out of fear of Mr Braginski, and that they were coming to the conclusion only part way to the root of the problem.

So he kept the file behind his back.

"You look tired" he muttered finally, dropping his eyes to the ground.

Even though he wasn't looking at him, Heracles could sense Sadiq's surprise, because there was another silence.

"Is that what you came here to say?" Sadiq asked unbelievingly.

"Yes" Heracles replied, before fleeing from the office as fast as his feet would take him.

To make matters worse, Katyusha and Natalia were waiting outside for him, looking hopeful and expectant.

"Well?" Natalia asked fiercely, "what happened?"

"I..." Heracles rubbed the back of his head, "I didn't tell him..."

After that sentence he was pretty sure the entire building went silent; like somehow everybody was hanging on this moment.

"You didn't tell him?" Katyusha sounded confused, "why not?"

Thinking very quickly in his usually steady moving brain Heracles tried to excuse his actions, "even if we get rid of him Mr Braginski will just hire somebody like him..."

"So you're saying it's Ivan's fault!" Natalia growled, narrowing her eyes at him.

Honestly, Heracles wasn't very sure. They'd done so much digging into Sadiq that they hadn't even been thinking about Ivan.

"No, I just don't think he's free of the strife he gives us. He looks like Ivan works him twice as hard as he works us."

He waited for the others to think this over, but he knew they wouldn't understand. Hell, he didn't really understand.

"Has he... Got to you?" Katyusha asked carefully, "because if he has something on you, we won't care what it is..."

"No" Heracles felt almost angry. He's spent all this time hating Sadiq now he wanted to defend him from this onslaught.

Natalia pushed past her sister, holding out her hand, "If you won't do it, I will; give me the paper," she twitched her fingers impatiently.

Gripping the paper harder, Heracles glanced around him. Could he just hand it over; then it wouldn't really be his problem... Would it?

"Give it!" She suddenly snapped, at the same time a moment of madness over took the Greek, because he reached out at posted the file through the paper shredder.

Natalia lunged at him at the same time; the only evidence they'd had of something incriminating Sadiq had done now in thousands of pieces.

The whole office broke into civil war.

Heracles was grateful when Gupta suddenly struck a man back who had been going to hit him from behind while he was trying to wrestle off Natalia.

People from other floors even seemed to be arriving to join in.

Computers were knocked off the desk and papers thrown all over the place, a few of the women had begun screaming as another one of their co-workers took aim for another.

"What the hell is going on here!" Sadiq threw open his office door, but everyone ignored him.

Unused to this he strolled right into the thick of things, just in time to see one of the men from the floor below punch Heracles round the face.

Feeling a strange rage burning inside him suddenly, Sadiq took hold of the man and lifted him off his feet.

"Would everybody shut up!" He barked at the top of his voice, this time everybody did freeze. Their eyes flashing between Sadiq and Heracles. Finding silence, Sadiq drew in a deep breath, "would someone tell me what is going on!"

He couldn't help but worry that Mr Braginski was about to make one of his surprise arrivals; what would he do if he saw the office in this state?

No one said anything though they were now shooting daggers at Heracles who was wiping a smear of blood from his lip.

"Heracles," Sadiq motioned to him to follow him into his office.

Getting up reluctantly, and feeling everyone watching him, Heracles followed Sadiq into his office.

They stood opposite each other awkwardly after Sadiq had closed the door.

"So are you going to tell me what happened?" Sadiq asked, folding his arms; "because if someone doesn't tell me I may have to start firing people,"

Heracles narrowed his eyes.

"I was just joking" Sadiq dismissed, brushing out his finger absent mindedly to wipe the blood from the Greek's chin, "but seriously, what's wrong? I don't need to know what was going on to know it was slightly directed at you."

Surprised that he wasn't resisting Sadiq's touch, Heracles knew that he had to tell him.


	6. Chapter 6

"You what...?" Sadiq left his mouth hanging open, unsure whether to be more shocked at what Heracles had found out, or that he openly defended him in front of the entire company staff.

The Greek was unable to meet his gaze, and his cheeks were burning a fierce red.

"Don't worry I shredded it... I think that was the only copy, but you might want to check... But I won't tell you where I got it..." Heracles began to fumble over his words, his blush growing brighter by the moment.

Both of them seemed to be on a different brain wave because Sadiq was still repeating to himself, "you shredded it? _You _shredded it?" He couldn't believe Heracles would do something like that for him.

They went on like this for some time, before pausing for breath at almost the same time, finally managing to meet each other's gaze.

Sadiq felt his own face beginning to turn an uncomfortable red. It was just so tempting to close the distance between them, but he managed to stop himself; after all Heracles had already rejected him once.

"I suppose I'll have to tell Mr Braginski about the mess..." Sadiq turned away quickly, swallowing hard; it was easy enough to guess how his Russian boss was going to react to this.

"I..." Sadiq paused when he heard Heracles' voice again, he turned round to see the Greek's face an unbelievably deep scarlet, and twiddling with his thumbs, "I don't suppose your free to pay for a dinner tonight...?"

It took Sadiq a moment to process, "dinner?"

"Yeah... I mean only if you want to and stuff..."

_I know this is painfully short, but I wanted to finish it. I've got loads of work to do before school starts again._

"Sure," Sadiq shook his head a little to clear it, "I'll pick you up at six?"

"Fine."

There was another awkward pause. "Forget it!"

"Huh?" The Greek was momentarily stunned, then Sadiq pulled there faces together and kissed him.


End file.
